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i assume sid’s breathless, squirmy 71-page treatise on how big and dominant geno is had to be redacted in its entirety

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Young Frankenstein (1974) dir. Mel Brooks

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if sid plans on dropping the gloves like this all season I’m going to have to mentally prepare for all the heart attacks I’ll have

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hate that, man

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Jon & Sansa; a virgin queen, her ranging butcher.

Read it here.

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This won’t make your blog look ugly. How could you not reblog this? REBLOGGING THIS COULD SAVE A LIFE!!!

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woof juicy news day for us pens fans. not only do we have sidney crosby’s Seduction of kyle dubas, now we have this article on Why Hextall Sucks (and how he pissed off even sidney crosby) + some angsty Geno details that i will only relish now that he’s still with us:

Early last summer, at his spacious home in Montreal, Kris Letang finally saw the document that secured his future in Pittsburgh.

No stranger to the multi-page, standard player contract, this one was particularly special. It was his fourth, and probably his last. It contained specific elements Letang and his agent required. One line read “six years.” Another read “$36.6 million.” The line that Letang really loved?: “full no-movement clause.”

Together, those words recommitted Letang and the Penguins, the only NHL franchise he had ever known. At 35, he would finish his career in Pittsburgh.

As word spread last July 7, Letang’s phone blew up. The flood of well-wishers included teammates past and present, various Penguins personnel he’d befriended over his previous 16 seasons, and family and friends. He took only a few calls. Among them: Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, his oldest and dearest teammates in Pittsburgh, who were thrilled for him.

Crosby, the Penguins captain and franchise icon, had made it clear to general manager Ron Hextall and president of hockey operations Brian Burke as far back as the 2021 offseason that he wanted the team to re-sign impending free agents Letang and Malkin so the three veterans and lifetime Penguins could take another shot at a Stanley Cup together.

Would Crosby pressure ownership to sign Malkin and Letang? “I’ve never wanted to be GM,” Crosby said. “I think they know how I feel.”

While the negotiations with Letang took longer and were more difficult than expected, Hextall’s discussions with Malkin had turned dark. Only days before the start of free agency last summer, Letang, Crosby and coach Mike Sullivan worked overtime trying to calm Malkin, who was stewing over lowball early contract offers, limited communication with Hextall and veiled public shots from Burke.

“How bad is it?” Letang asked Crosby about the state of Malkin’s emotions and the negotiations.

“Pretty bad,” Crosby said.

Hextall first irritated Malkin late in the 2021-22 season by offering a short-term contract extension to his agent, J.P. Barry. In the offseason that animosity built as weeks passed without a follow-up conversation from Hextall. On June 17, Hextall told Barry that the team’s offer was “take-it-or-leave-it,” and the next day Burke used those words to characterize the negotiations during multiple media interviews. Not surprisingly, Malkin, a sure Hall-of-Famer, went from annoyed to insulted.

For weeks leading up to and after Letang’s deal was finalized, Malkin stewed at home while Crosby, Letang and Sullivan checked in with him from afar. With no deal in sight, Malkin began speaking to his small inner circle as if his time with the Penguins was concluding.

Hextall fielded daily questions from Fenway Sports Group brass about why Malkin hadn’t yet been re-signed. Hextall was also taken aback by the barrage of calls and texts — from Penguins alternate governor Dave Beeston, from Crosby and Sullivan, from president of business operations Kevin Acklin — after reports surfaced that Malkin would test free agency. He told his agent he wanted to “show Hextall and Burke” by trying the open market.

Malkin had joked during the ’21-22 season that he was “a rich guy,” insisting he didn’t need to worry about money on his next contract. He was having a laugh, but was also somewhat serious. He had taken less than market value on two previous deals with the Penguins and expected that trend to continue on his final NHL contract.

He was about to turn 36. He wanted to play until he was 40. He sought a contract with a no-trade clause. But more than money, he needed the Penguins to show they really wanted him, something he felt was lacking, especially from Hextall. By July 11, 2022, Malkin was convinced he’d already practiced in Cranberry for the last time.

After tucking in their son, Nikita, Malkin and his wife, Anna, sat on their leather couch and looked at a summary sheet of Hextall’s latest offer: four seasons, $24.4 million total, a full no-movement clause.

Malkin was fine with what he read. The sticking point was his bruised feelings.

“They not think I good player,” Malkin wrote in a text message to Crosby.

“They not want me,” Malkin texted to Letang, who had stepped up efforts to console Malkin after signing his deal.

Malkin wanted to stay in Pittsburgh, but he no longer trusted either Hextall or Burke. Crosby and Sullivan intervened. Each spent hours on the phone with Malkin as July 11 became July 12. Careful not to tell him what to do, Crosby and Sullivan implored Malkin to “not worry about those guys” — Hextall and Burke — when making a final decision. Letang, too, jumped into the mix. Together, two-thirds of the Big Three and their coach brought up every special moment, funny story and great time they could remember to remind Malkin what they had built in Pittsburgh. Malkin paced from room to room at his condo in Fisher Island, finally beginning to feel wanted again.

As early morning shifted to late afternoon, Malkin had heard enough to make a decision. He called his agent, Barry, with instructions to re-engage with Hextall and take the offer. Upon calling, Barry was surprised to find a receptive Hextall.

After hanging up with Barry, Hextall bragged to his assistant GM, Chris Pryor, and a handful of staffers, that he “got him on my terms — that’s how you negotiate.” Malkin informed Crosby, Letang and Sullivan that he was staying. When talking to Crosby and Letang, Malkin sounded happy for the first time in a long time.

“We win next year,” Malkin told his friends. “Big year get back Cup.”

also these bits 🥺

After McGinn was put on waivers, he played a memorable final game with the Penguins, blocking shots and setting up Crosby for a dramatic tying goal in the third period. In the locker room afterward, his soon-to-be-former teammates named him player of the game, eliciting a massive roar from the group that could be heard through closed doors.

Hextall traded Teddy Blueger during the same trip. In the middle of a dinner with the players’ fathers, arranged by Crosby at Bern’s Steakhouse in Tampa, Blueger learned via social media that he had been dealt to Vegas. He and his dad abruptly left the restaurant. Crosby rushed to console his now former teammate and after a few minutes returned to the dinner. “That’s not how we do things in Pittsburgh,” he said. Crosby remained mostly quiet the rest of the night.

…Long after most of their teammates had left the locker room after the demoralizing 5-2 defeat, the Big Three remained.

Malkin was emotional, his voice rising as he spoke. He had been dreaming of his beloved parents, Natalia and Vladimir, returning to Pittsburgh for another postseason run. Instead, they’d stay in Russia.

Letang, in the adjacent corner of the room, spoke thoughtfully and contemplatively. He had been through hell and back all season, and the Penguins’ loss was another blow.

Then there was Crosby, who sits at the center of an arc of connected lockers. The Penguins captain, with gray hairs that seemed to grow more plentiful throughout the season, sat stoically. After finishing interviews, Crosby sat by himself, staring straight ahead before slowly walking out of the locker room.

sorry need to add the header too because i would totally watch this telenovella

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The LGBTQ community has seen controversy regarding acceptance of different groups (bisexual and transgender individuals have sometimes been marginalized by the larger community), but the term LGBT has been a positive symbol of inclusion and reflects the embrace of different identities and that we’re stronger together and need each other. While there are differences, we all face many of the same challenges from broader society.

In the 1960′s, in wider society the meaning of the word gay transitioned from ‘happy’ or ‘carefree’ to predominantly mean ‘homosexual’ as they adopted the word as was used by homosexual men, except that society also used it as an umbrella term that meant anyone who wasn’t cisgender or heterosexual. The wider queer community embraced the word ‘gay’ as a mark of pride.

The modern fight for queer rights is considered to have begun with The Stonewall Riots in 1969 and was called the Gay Liberation Movement and the Gay Rights Movement.

The acronym GLB surfaced around this time to also include Lesbian and Bisexual people who felt “gay” wasn’t inclusive of their identities. 

Early in the gay rights movement, gay men were largely the ones running the show and there was a focus on men’s issues. Lesbians were unhappy that gay men dominated the leadership and ignored their needs and the feminist fight. As a result, lesbians tended to focus their attention on the Women’s Rights Movement which was happening at the same time. This dominance by gay men was seen as yet one more example of patriarchy and sexism. 

In the 1970′s, sexism and homophobia existed in more virulent forms and those biases against lesbians also made it hard for them to find their voices within women’s liberation movements. Betty Friedan, the founder of the National Organization for Women (NOW), commented that lesbians were a “lavender menace” that threatened the political efficacy of the organization and of feminism and many women felt including lesbians was a detriment.

In the 80s and 90s, a huge portion of gay men were suffering from AIDS while the lesbian community was largely unaffected. Lesbians helped gay men with medical care and were a massive part of the activism surrounding the gay community and AIDS. This willingness to support gay men in their time of need sparked a closer, more supportive relationship between both groups, and the gay community became more receptive to feminist ideals and goals. 

Approaching the 1990′s it was clear that GLB referred to sexual identity and wasn’t inclusive of gender identity and T should be added, especially since trans activist have long been at the forefront of the community’s fight for rights and acceptance, from Stonewall onward. Some argued that T should not be added, but many gay, lesbian and bisexual people pointed out that they also transgress established gender norms and therefore the GLB acronym should include gender identities and they pushed to include T in the acronym. 

GLBT became LGBT as a way to honor the tremendous work the lesbian community did during the AIDS crisis. 

Towards the end of the 1990s and into the 2000s, movements took place to add additional letters to the acronym to recognize Intersex, Asexual, Aromantic, Agender, and others. As the acronym grew to LGBTIQ, LGBTQIA, LGBTQIAA, many complained this was becoming unwieldy and started using a ‘+’ to show LGBT aren’t the only identities in the community and this became more common, whether as LGBT+ or LGBTQ+. 

In the 2010′s, the process of reclaiming the word “queer” that began in the 1980′s was largely accomplished. In the 2020′s the LGBTQ+ acronym is used less often as Queer is becoming the more common term to represent the community. 

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Hanging out with old people rules because after a while they trust you enough to confess to murder totally unprompted

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mood

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“the constant beating of his body by opponents who don’t care about his legacy” 😭

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A complete Rainbow... photo was taken at around 30k ft above the Earth. On the ground, we usually only see the arc half of the circle.

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A podcast turned into a horrifying true crime story early Friday, after its host and her husband were murdered in their home in Washington by a crazed fan.

The killer, trucker Ramin Khodakaramrezaei, had stalked his victim for “many months,” before he broke into her house in the Seattle suburb of Redmond through an open window at 1:45 a.m., police said.

Khodakaramrezaei gunned down podcaster Zohreh Sadeghi, 33, and her husband, Mohammed Naseri, 35, before turning his weapon on himself. Sadeghi’s mother managed to escape and called the police from a neighbor’s house.

Naseri, who was shot in the upper torso, tried to flee the scene, before collapsing by the front door of the house, according to Redmond Police Chief Darrell Lowe. Officers attempted CPR on Naseri until paramedics arrived but were not able to resuscitate him.

Lowe told The Daily Beast that Khodakaramrezaei first came into contact with Sadeghi after tuning into a podcast that she was “affiliated with” on the subject of “gaining employment in the tech industry.”

According to Redmond Police Department spokesperson Jill Green, “[Khodakaramrezaei] started emailing her and messaging her, just starting conversations about the podcast, and my understanding is that they became friends.” Cops could not immediately provide the name of the podcast.

But at some point, the pair’s relationship took a concerning turn, and Sadeghi became uncomfortable with the content of Khodakaramrezaei’s messages and how often he was contacting her, according to authorities.

Lowe said he was first made aware of “harassing behavior” by the suspect in December. Khodakaramrezaei would repeatedly contact Sadeghi by text and over the phone, once calling her over 100 times in a single day, he added.

According to Lowe, this harassment eventually escalated to in-person stalking. He said Khodakaramrezaei had visited Sadeghi’s residence in Redmond before the night of the murder and followed her to a conference in Denver “in the latter part of 2022.”

The upscale suburb where Sadeghi’s $1.6 million home is located is most famous for being the site of Microsoft’s headquarters.

Lowe said after his first contact with Sadeghi, she reached out again in mid-January, at which point the case was assigned to an investigator who began to follow up on it, attempting to contact Khodakaramrezaei to gain a statement from him and let him know Sadeghi no longer wanted to be in contact with him.

“Our detectives had warrants to get information from his phone and were trying to serve the no contact order to the suspect [but] had not done so yet. Being that he is a trucker, he’s hard to pin down,” Green said.

Lowe said it was not until March that a judge issued a temporary protection order, which the King County District Court says can be obtained by people who “are in immediate danger.”

That protection order, which would have forbidden Khodakaramrezaei from contacting Sadeghi but not provided any material protection, had not yet been served at the time of the murder.

“I think the key piece here is that a protection order is simply a piece of paper that does not prevent a person from causing harm to another person,” Lowe said. “It just puts them on notice and gives law enforcement the ability to arrest a person should they violate said protective order.”

Lowe said Sadeghi had no idea that Khodakaramrezaei, who had no criminal record prior to the murders, was planning to pay her a visit, and that if she had the police would have been there to issue the protection order.

Jamie Lynn Burns, a resident of neighboring Kirkland who is currently preparing to move into a house across the street from Sadeghi and Naseri, said the couple were “super welcoming” and called the news of their deaths “shocking.”

“They were just so friendly and inviting,” Burns said. “We were like, ‘Oh my gosh, we couldn’t have found better neighbors.’”

But Burns said when she visited the house a week and a half ago, she remembers seeing Sadeghi’s mother “very diligently watching out the window.”

“I wonder … now if she was maybe, you know, like on a high alert,” Burns said.

“It’s a really small, safe community, so it just feels all the more shocking to have something like that happen in Redmond of all places,” she added.

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safe in his arms…

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ricky just knocking provorov to the ground… he said gay rights

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Spring Bouquet, Flowers in a Vase by Pierre-Auguste Renoir